


the love that saves the world

by kavkakat



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Gen, a bit of swearing but not a huge lot, you can see it as shippy or as gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-18
Updated: 2014-07-18
Packaged: 2018-02-09 09:56:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1978530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kavkakat/pseuds/kavkakat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>YHWH and Death have an outstanding date each week on Thursday to sit down, drink some sugar, and talk about Old Times. Sometimes They talk about Love. On these times They usually bring up YHWH’s oldest children.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the love that saves the world

**Author's Note:**

> A Reincarnation AU based on [this post](http://artemisiagentileschied.tumblr.com/post/92041738703/angelicdiaspora-sockmonkeyrenegade-i-think).  
> Published first at my [tumblr](http://kavkakat.tumblr.com/post/92063234523/the-love-that-saves-the-world).

In the beginning, there were four: the LORD; the Death of Deaths; the Righteous One; and the Lightbringer.

YHWH and Death came into being at the same time: a force to Give and a force to Take Away. It’s not known how They came into being. If you catch YHWH long enough to ask, YHWH smiles a gentle smile and turns the subject to the weather. Death is more forthcoming, but no one thinks to ask, and besides, when most people get the chance they’re usually a bit more concerned about themselves than about the creation of the universe.

YHWH quite enjoyed the company of Death, but eventually They both became quite bored with mere existence (this was billions of trillions of millennia before tea was invented, let alone that perpetual guilty pleasure: chain coffee shop tea that’s more sugar than leaf), and so YHWH created two others to keep Them company: the Righteous One and the Lightbringer.

The Righteous One was the mighty cause; the Lightbringer was the furious effect .

They were in Love.

Billions of trillions of millennia later, after chain coffee shop tea is invented, YHWH and Death have an outstanding date each week on Thursday (or whatever passes for Thursday in each world) to sit down, drink some sugar, and talk about Old Times.

Sometimes They argue about which of Them came into Being first (it’s an old argument and They both don’t care about the outcome, because neither truly believes it important). Sometimes They talk about their favorite creations (YHWH absolutely adores the humans; Death can see why, created in YHWH’s image as they are). Sometimes They talk about Love.

On these times They usually bring up YHWH’s oldest children.

 

* * *

 

So there’s this plan.

To bring on the apocalypse.

Apparently Sam and Dean put it in motion themselves, while still all winged up. Dean can see himself doing that, deciding to burn everything because Sam wasn’t with him anymore. Sam tries not to see himself doing that, because he won't, okay, not anymore, he _can't_.

Dean’s not sure what to do about it, but Sam throws himself all in to stopping it. He doesn’t care that all heaven and hell is against them - he’s getting more and more of his memories back, and his powers are swelling with each day, and who but YHWH or Death could stand against them together when they loved each other?

So Dean helps, and Bobby helps, and Dean’s friends help, and Sam’s friends help, and some angels help, and some demons help, and in the end it does make a difference that Lilith is already dead, but they _make it_.

Because they’re in this together. That’s what you do for the people you love.

 

* * *

 

Now, Michael and Lucifer both loved each other and Loved each other.

They grew together from tiny specks of atoms to great seraphim with six pairs of wings each and thousands of eyes. They played together, creating and destroying galaxies and local star clusters with their wings in haste, tearing stars into black holes and bring them into being with their joy in Being. They were all each other had (YHWH tried to be the cool parent, but YHWH spent more time with Death than with either of them, and Death was too cold for either bright-burning archangel to be around long) and they loved each other dearly.

They were created to balance each other out. Lucifer was the beautiful one, the darkness that creates light; Michael was the harsh one, the light that creates darkness. They pulled each other in like gravity, orbiting around each other like binary stars in the vastness. They tore at each other and they healed each other, and their Love burned like a supernova that has incinerated its surrounding planets.

They were pretty okay with this.

They had never known anything else.

 

* * *

 

_They are not okay with this_.

After Sam killed Lilith with his mind, his - his - _powers_ just kept coming. And then came Dean’s as well.

Dean tries not to think about that.

It’s easier to think of the memories that start seeping into his mind, of playing with Sam when they were large enough to scatter stars when they fell in a wrestling match, of singing with his multitude of siblings of the joy of - heaven.

Okay, maybe not so easy.

Sam has it worse, Dean’s sure. Because while Dean is remembering a life in - heaven - Sam gets to remember hell. Being thrown down and locked away and striking back in spite and being punished for it and hating himself and hating the world.

It sure explains why demons all seem to love Sam, but neither Winchester is just _okay_ with this.

 

* * *

 

Eventually, YHWH got it into Their head that bringing more life into Being might be fun. And it was: planets formed; plants grew from dust and ash; and then bacteria; and then sealife; and then mammals; and then the Creatures That Thought. (Or, they at least had the potential to think, although Lucifer wasn’t so sure if they ever used it.)

YHWH was entranced with Their creations, even more so than They had been with the creation of Michael and Lucifer’s younger angelic siblings. Possibly it was simple fascination; the Creatures That Thought were small and simple, Michael thought, but surprisingly hardy. Possibly it was simple malice; the Creatures That Thought were made to die, Lucifer knew, unlike the angels and YHWH and Death Themselves. Or possibly it was ego; these Creatures That Thought could comprehend a higher power, and were quick to honor it.

(None but Death truly understood what “made in YHWH’s image” truly meant, and, of course, no one and no One ever thought to ask.)

 

* * *

 

Dean knows he’s less like Bobby than he likes to think. Sam got the urge to research the shit out of everything, and Dean got the urge to shoot stuff with silver bullets. But in this case here, Bobby going off alone and not telling him?

That seems like something he’d do, too.

Also seems a good way for Bobby to get in trouble. Since Dean knows he hunts best as part of a team, he goes off and convinces Sam to come with and save the old man. (Doesn’t take much convincing to get Sam out of his cushy California life, Dean notes almost happily.) They roar off in the Impala and follow Bobby’s trail across the country. Dean checks up on his hunter connections; Sam checks in on his own connections in the supernatural underground.

Sam was always better at making friends with supernatural creatures than Dean was.

They stumble onto the trail of this demon - _Lilith_ \- who seems to be what Bobby was hunting. Right piece of work, eating babies and campaigning to open up all seven Gates of Hell to flood Earth with fire and rage. Or something like that, Dean stops listening after hearing that she eats babies. Ain’t nothing nice ever do that.

So they find Lilith, and find Bobby as well, and Lilith greets Sam like an old friend.

Dean is surprised, and then he remembers her from when he was twelve - this little girl in a white dress that let herself out of a Devil’s Trap after being shot through with silver bullets. Not his favorite of the demons that seem to just swarm around Sam.

Sam, for his part, just kind of holds up his hand and Lilith shrieks, convulsing as sparks glow under her skin and in her chest, and then she collapses to the ground, dead.

Sam seems a little confused by this sudden new power. (Dean, for his part, is very confused, but not confused enough to stop having Sam’s back, and when the next demon leaps at Sam, he exorcises it like a goddamn pro.)

 

* * *

 

There eventually came a time when the Love that burned between Michael and Lucifer grew too strong for even then and it broke them apart. Too many different opinions, too many arguments, too many play fights gone sour.

Heaven suffered, for Michael was at his worst when alone.

Earth suffered, for humans are at their worst when there is chaos.

Hell suffered, for Lucifer was never meant to live down there.

There was no going back.

 

* * *

 

There’s no going back now; Sam's bought the bus ticket out west, and he doesn’t have enough money to get another ticket back. He is well and truly on his own. He needs to remember why he’s doing this: by going to law school, by being a lawyer, he can do some real good in the world, help out people who need it. He needs to ignore the voice in the back of his mind that says he’s only at his best when he’s with Dean, because fuck that, he already knows that, and it’s not like Dean can’t come visit.

Dean doesn’t tell Sam that he’s not sure he can bring himself to visit. See, Sam going to Stanford feels to Dean a lot like Sam saying goodbye forever. He knows he can call Sam, will probably see him during the summers and such, but this is the first time they’ve been apart in -

Well, it feels an awful like ripping out part of himself, and while Dean pretends to be happy for him, he’s not sure he can forgive Sam for this.

(Of course he can; Sam is Sam and Dean is Dean; of _course_ he can.)

 

* * *

 

Heaven became a military operation, with flight drills instead of freeflying and war hymns instead of love songs. Michael walked among his siblings not as the Eldest But Equal but as a General, above and untouchable. He was the glint of sun on an unsheathed blade, and just as sharp. His voice, once the most beautiful of the choirs, bit out orders like the words were begrudged. He held his wings close to him and pretended that it did not tear him apart to be so far from his other half.

Hell became a place of misery. Lucifer hurt, and so he spread his hurt to others. He burned the few souls that found their way down to him, burned them and cut them apart and sewed them back together in surprising new shapes. Who ever knew the Creatures That Thought could be so fun to play with, he crowed. But these were no longer the Creatures that Thought, not the ones that He made - they were new, and completely Lucifer’s own. Broken and burned and cast away, just like Lucifer, and he would take care of them and they would Love him.

 

* * *

 

School is neither heaven nor hell, despite how Sam and Dean like to tease each other.

Dean is four years older than Sam, of course, so he goes to school first. It’s dull, it’s repetitive, and the only good thing about it is finding new friends. So he goes, he serves out his time, and he hangs out with some guys after school at the basketball court in the park until it’s time to come home to Sam. And Bobby.

He gets in trouble, Bobby gets him out of trouble, and the word “adopted” is about as magic with the school administration as any hexbag in the office would be. He doesn’t hate the place. He’s just not very fond of it, after everything.

Sam spends four years looking forward to school before getting there and realizing that, while learning stuff is fun, learning lots of stuff in a obvious way is not so fun. Especially when the bullies flank you on the corner of Boolsey and Streft during lunch break every other day.

It gets better; Sam only gets in one fight ever, and he comes off only slightly worse off than the five larger boys who attack him. His reputation as the quiet nerd kid with the bright smile and the scary ability to flatten anyone who comes at him spreads quickly. And that’s before Dean steps in and makes his displeasure known.

So Sam kind of likes school. He likes it better than those four years when he had to stay home and watch Dean go off without him, but in the end he likes being with his brother best of all.

 

* * *

 

YHWH grew distant from His children.

Michael noticed but did nothing about it, for it was all he could do to continue as he was. Gabriel might have noticed, but Gabriel was already gone, disappeared to walk among the humans. Raphael followed Michael, too busy trying in earnest to heal his breaks and failing utterly to notice anything else. Until one day, YHWH was not there. No one could find a sign of Them, or where They had gone. Michel thought of asking Death, but was too afraid of the answer to go through with it.

In Hell, Lucifer may have felt YHWH’s disappearance, but he was more gaping hole than he was solid at this point, so what was another ache on top of his pain?

Besides, he was busy building his empire of demons: naming his seven Knights, his children that were with him the longest; ensuring ways to make more demons; arranging his resting place to look less like a cage and more like a throne.

Appearances _matter_ , after all.

 

* * *

 

Bobby keeps Dean and Sam out of the hunting life as long as possible, but in the end there’s really no stopping them. Sam has this overwhelming need to help people, as if making up for a past mistake, and Dean has this overwhelming need to protect Sam. So Bobby teaches them how to hold a gun properly, how to guard each other’s backs, and, most importantly, when not to kill.

Most supernatural creatures, just like humans, are just there to survive. Find a connection or two, find a purpose for their life, and just get along. These are not the creatures that Bobby feels a need to hunt.

But - others are problems. They kill indiscriminately, for the fun of it, and God help anyone who gets in their way. These are the creatures that Bobby teaches Sam and Dean to hunt. The ones who would rather die than change their ways, who would watch the world burn.

 

* * *

 

Lucifer wants to see the world _burn_. He hoards his children greedily, counting the years until he can invade Earth and win, burning it to the ground and destroying all Michael holds dear. (He conveniently forgets that Michael cared no more for Earth than he ever did.)

Michael wants to see the world _burn_. He drills his soldiers mercilessly, counting the years until he can invade Earth and win, burning it to the ground and destroying all Lucifer has dared to create without him. (He conveniently forgets that Lucifer’s domain is now Hell, and Hell is rather fireproof.)

Even separated, they orbit each other, the distance merely ensuring that more people get caught in the blast radius of their consuming Love for each other.

 

* * *

 

Dean is twelve and Sam eight the first time they run into a demon.

Bobby doesn’t even known until three hours later, when he comes home and finds Sam staring curiously at a young girl in a white dress with white eyes, trapped inside the Devil’s Trap carved into the kitchen floor. Dean, of course, is right behind Sam, a gun with silver bullets trained on the girl’s head. A smouldering bullet hole over the girl’s heart shows that Dean has already tried that method, but it never hurts to try again.

When Bobby walks in, the girl smiles at Sam prettily, burns a line through the Devil’s Trap, and disappears.

When he asks Sam what that was about later, Sam mutters something about old friends, which really doesn’t make sense, but Bobby let’s it slide again because Sam’s got that look on his face where he expects to be punished for something.

(He asks Dean as well, and gets something snarled in another language that he won’t recognize until years later as Enochian.)

 

* * *

 

Their followers feared them and loved them and worried for them (about them). Lucifer withdrew to his throne-cage, drawing his burnt and tattered wings about him, letting Lilith take over as his voice and command. Michael withdrew to the farthest reaches of Heaven, practicing his fighting stances until he was nothing more than a weapon, dead-eyed and sharp, letting Raphael take over the legions of angels preparing for the destruction of everything.

No one stopped them. Perhaps it was better this way.Maybe everything would be alright this way.

(No one truly believed that, except maybe Death, and no one asked Death anything.)

 

* * *

 

Bobby calls the boys into the police, but no one’s looking for them. (Of course, a voice in the back of his mind says, no one will be looking for them if they fucking _abandoned them_.) Bobby says they can stay with him, and the system surprisingly lets him take them.

The older boy says he can’t remember their names, and Bobby just goes with it, because something must have happened to them and he probably wouldn’t want to talk about it, either. So he gives them names: Dean for the boy and Sam for the baby, after his favorite uncles, and Winchester for their last name, after his favorite gun. He didn’t mean for the names to be predictive, but it’s not his fault his kids want to live up to their troublemaking namesakes.

 

* * *

 

Michael almost didn’t realize he was no longer alone before YHWH spoke to him. And then, it had been so long since he had heard his Creator’s voice that he almost didn’t recognize it.

But what YHWH spoke of - a future where he and Lucifer lived together, as brothers again, inseparable again - it broke Michael a bit, and he wept as YHWH held him, choking out one word over and over again:

“ _Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes_.”

Lucifer noticed YHWH the moment his Creator arrived in Hell, the only thing not burning in the fires lit by Lucifer’s rage. He merely tucked his wings closer around him, protection against the words YHWH spoke.

It was - tempting.

Oh, so tempting.

Living together with Michael again, a chance to do things right?

It was all Lucifer ever wanted, and that was how he knew it wasn’t true.

But finally, finally, he gave in for a second, and let the word slip past his lips:

“ _Yes_.”

And with their consent, YHWH ripped his eldest children apart, broke them down to component atoms, and let them settle into human bodies, into lives that would let them love each other again.

 

* * *

 

In the summer of 1983, Bobby Singer finds a mysterious site on his porch: a dirty four-year-old boy carrying a three-month-old baby in his arms.

Now, Bobby Singer owns and lives in a salvage yard. It’s a huge, sprawling place full of rusty old cars piled two or three tall in some places. These towers can be a little precarious for grown men who are paying attention to them. Bobby can’t believe these boys got all the way to his porch without an adult helping them - but if someone led them here, why the hell did they abandon them?

Bobby sighs, looking down at the pitiful sight they make together, and motions them inside.

 

* * *

 

It’s the same old story, YHWH comments to Death again and again.

It’s the Love that saves the world.


End file.
